It seems the US (Nasa) will be back on the moon before any other x-prize team will get over there.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It has been 31 years since a U.S. astronaut last walked on the Moon, but China's space ambitions have signaled a possible American return to the lunar surface as part of a renewed space program.

If speculation turns fact that President George Bush is supporting a NASA return to the Moon, he is not alone in wanting to go the lunar distance. Numbers of nations -- China, India, Japan, among them -- are making plans to explore the Moon.

A worldwide gathering of lunar experts has called for a sequence of technological, exploratory and commercial missions culminating in the establishment a human presence on the Moon.

The declaration -- issued December 4 -- was hammered out following a major international meeting of scientists, engineers, and mission planners, held November 16-22 on Hawai`i Island, Hawaii.

The weeklong gathering brought together representatives from the major spacefaring nations under the banner of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG). This was the fifth gathering of nations that are actively pursuing exploration of the Moon, said Steve Durst, a key conference organizer and head of Space Age Publishing Company with offices in Hawaii.

Durst told SPACE.com that the meeting was goal oriented, rather than just academic, with the purpose of the conference to see people back on the Moon within the decade. The next ILEWG meeting is to be held next November in India, he said, with China or Europe to host the working group in 2005.

Compelling questions evolved from the conference, Dust said, such as:

What national, international or commercial mission will be first to establish a toehold for Lunar Civilization?
Where and what will that toehold be on the Moon: a power station, observatory, or perhaps a communications hub and resource processing plant complex at Malapert Mountain at the Moon's South Pole. Another site of major interest is Shackleton crater, perhaps the location of water ice, hidden from the Sun's warming rays.

Americans support low-cost return to the moon: pollWASHINGTON (AFP) Dec 09, 2003Americans want to see a new US expedition to the moon, if it does not cost too much, according to a survey released Tuesday.US media reports have said President George W. Bush is about to announce the resumption of flights to the moon. But the White House said last week that such reports were "premature" and "speculation".

According to a Gallup poll for USA Today newspaper and CNN television, 53 percent of Americans favour sending astronauts to the moon again. However, only 31 percent said it would be worth it if this meant a multibillion-dollar bill.

US Apollo missions landed on the moon six times between 1969 and 1972.

Media reports have speculated that Bush might make an announcement on the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight in North Carolina on December 17, 1903, by the Wright brothers.

But White House spokesman Scott McClellan said there were no plans for an immediate announcement on space plans.

There is plenty of support for returning to the Moon, but the real political problem is that the Republican congress of alleged conservatives are raising spending faster than a mob of drunken sailors. The Democrats never did care about fiscal responsibilty and now the Republicans have joined them under the covers! Ouch!